192  New  System  of  Weights  and  Measures.  {Am-/^;^0fm- 
supervision  in  preparation  during  the  last  five  years,  there  have 
been  but  two  metric  prescriptions.  From  inquiries  he  has  reason 
to  believe  that  the  general  experience  differs  but  little  from  his. 
The  proposition  herein  advanced  is  in  the  nature  of  a  compromise, 
but  has  ever  a  measure  been  proposed  so  well  adapted  to  meet  the 
common  need ;  producing  a  minimum  of  evil  and  a  maximum  of 
good  ?  Further,  it  is  in  complete  harmony  with  the  requirements 
of  that  eminently  fair  standard  adopted  in  a  resolution  to  the  Revi- 
sion Committee  by  the  American  Pharm.  Association,  at  its  meeting 
in  1889,1  which  reads  as  follows:  "That  it  is  the  sense  of  this 
Association  that  in  the  next  revision  of  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia,  all 
preparations,  at  least  those  for  internal  use,  which  are  usually  pre- 
scribed and  administered  by  measure,  be  ordered  to  be  made  by 
weight  and  measure,  as  in  the  former  Pharmacopoeias ;  but  that  the 
Committee  of  Revision  shall  be  at  liberty  to  use  the  system  of  parts 
by  weight  in  all  other  cases,  and,  that  they  may  use  any  other 
system,  so  long  as  the  measures  or  weights  are  commensurate  with 
each  other  and  of  such  a  character  that  the  strength  of  the  product, 
and  of  any  given  fraction  thereof,  can  be  readily  ascertained  without 
tedious  calculations." 
In  the  warmth  of  his  admiration  for  the  high  scientific  character 
of  our  present  Pharmacopoeia,  the  writer  yields  to  no  one.  As 
equals,  it  has  few  ;  as  superiors,  none.  But,  in  his  opinion,  its  one 
vital  defect  is  the  general  presence  of  "  parts  by  weight."  That 
system  does  not  meet  the  approval  of  a  majority  of  American  phar- 
macists, and,  in  the  absence  of  legal  authority  on  the  part  of 
the  Revision  Committee  to  issue  decrees,  cannot  be  universally 
enforced. 
Is  it  not  wiser,  then,  to  recognize  that  fact  and  render  the  work  as 
authoritative  as  common  consent  can  make  it,  by  making  it  as 
popular  as  possible  ?  That  can  be  done  by  having  the  working 
formulas  simple  in  structure  and  adapted  to  existing,  national,  con- 
ditions. For,  after  all,  "  the  knowledge  that  a  man  can  use  is  the 
only  real  knowledge ;  the  only  knowledge  that  has  life  and  growth 
in  it  and  converts  itself  into  practical  power.  The  rest  hangs  like 
dust  about  the  brain,  or  dries  like  rain-drops  off  the  stones." 
(Froude). 
1  A.  P.  A.  Proceedings,  1889,  pp.  39-47. 
